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prof.dr. S.M. García Blanco (Sonia)

Full Professor

About Me

I started my career by studying Ingeniería Superior de Telecomunicación at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (1999). I carried out my MSc thesis work at the Ion Lab at the IBM Almaden research center, in Almaden, California, and, after completing my PhD at the University of Glasgow (2003) and my post-doc at the University of Toronto (2003-2005), I worked for five years at the Institute National d'Optique (INO) in Québec City, Canada on wafer-level hermetic vacuum packaging of microbolometer detectors, advanced packaging and silicon micro-bench technology. I joined the University of Twente in 2010 and I am currently leading the Integrated Optical Systems (IOS) group, where we develop novel materials and integration technologies for Integrated Photonics. 

I am also the co-founder and CEO of Aluvia Photonics B.V., a start-up company spun-off from the IOS group to offer foundry services of photonics integrated circuits (PICs) operating down to ultraviolet wavelengths in our proprietary aluminum oxide (Al2O3) technology.

I am the mother of two amazing kids, Marco (9) and Elena (7), who give relevance to all that I do, and married to a very supportive husband. I love long-distance running and I am giving my first steps in the world of triathlon.

Expertise

Engineering & Materials Science
Aluminum Oxide
Potassium
Rare Earths
Waveguides
Physics & Astronomy
Amplifiers
Chips
Potassium
Waveguides

Ancillary Activities

  • Aluvia Photonics (in creation)
    Setup of a spin-off company

Publications

Recent
Franken, C. , Hendriks, W. , Dijkstra, M., do Nascimento Jr., A. , Winkler, L. , van Rees, A. , Mardani, S. , Dekker, R., van Kerkhof, J. , van der Slot, P. , García Blanco, S. , & Boller, K. (2023). First near-UV hybrid integrated laser in the Al2O3 platform. In Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies XXVII (Vol. 12424). [PC124240A] SPIE International. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2657253
Aguirre-Fontenla, A. , Hendriks, W. A. P. M. , Dijkstra, M. , & García Blanco, S. M. (2022). TiO2 channel waveguides with 0.5 dB/cm propagation losses: (Student paper). In ECIO 2022: 23rd European Conference on Integrated Optics: 4th May - 6th May, Milan, Italy (pp. 375-377). Politecnico di Milano. https://www.ecio-conference.org/2022-proceedings/
Lafuente, M. , Berenschot, E. J. W. , Tiggelaar, R. M. , Susarrey Arce, A., Mallada, R., Pina, M. P. , García Blanco, S. M. , & Tas, N. R. (2022). Fabrication and characterization of symmetric Au-nanostructures with SERS activity: (Student paper). In ECIO 2022: 23rd European Conference on Integrated Optics: 4th May - 6th May, Milan, Italy (pp. 54-56). Politecnico di Milano.
Mitjans Prat, F., Padilla García, L., Kozyreff, G., Acharyya, N. , de Goede, M. , Chang, L. , Dijkstra, M. , García Blanco, S. M., Ramón-azcón, J., Obregón Núñez, R., Martínez Fraiz, E., Toudert, J., MARTORELL PENA, J., Brankovic, V., Mihajlovic, V., PARAUSIC, M., & TASOVAC, D. (2022). Self-referenced sensor. (Patent No. US 2022/0196650 A1).
Kong, Y. , Offerhaus, H. L. , Dijkstra, M. , & García Blanco, S. M. (2022). Towards broadband optical wafer-level testing system with on-chip micro-parabolic mirror. Paper presented at 26th annual Symposium of the IEEE Photonics Benelux Chapter 2022, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Chang, L. , Hendriks, W. A. P. M. , Hegeman, I. , Frentrop, R. N. , Dijkstra, M. , Korterik, J. P., Schilder, N. A., Seubers, H. A. , & García Blanco, S. M. (2022). Photonic chip based biosensing system with fully automatic alignment and parallel detection capability. In ECIO 2022: 23rd European Conference on Integrated Optics: 4th May - 6th May, Milan, Italy (pp. 95-97). Politecnico di Milano.
Kong, Y. , Offerhaus, H. L. , Dijkstra, M. , García Blanco, S. M. , & Chang, L. (2022). 3D printed on-chip parabolic mirror for chip-to-fiber and chip-to-chip coupling. In ECIO 2022: 23rd European Conference on Integrated Optics: 4th May - 6th May, Milan, Italy (pp. 324-326). Politecnico di Milano.

UT Research Information System

Affiliated Study Programmes

Master

Courses Academic Year  2022/2023

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.
 

Courses Academic Year  2021/2022

Contact Details

Visiting Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Science and Technology
Carré (building no. 15), room C4617
Hallenweg 23
7522NH  Enschede
The Netherlands

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Mailing Address

University of Twente
Faculty of Science and Technology
Carré  C4617
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands